Bayou Body Count: Nudity, Crack Pipes & A Double-Murder-Suicide

The big news this week in Bayou Body Count is the three dead family members League City police are investigating as a possible murder-murder-suicide. Lewis Cantrell Jr. and his wife Gayle Cantrell were found shot to death in their living room on the 2900 block of Chinaberry Park Lane. Lewis Cantrell III, 26, joined them on the floor, a pistol next to his body.

Two of the Cantrells' other adult children were in the home when the shooting occurred Wednesday evening. As soon as they heard gunfire, they fled to a neighbor's house, where they called the cops.

Detective John Jordan tells Bayou Body Count that witnesses say that after the initial shots rang out, the younger Cantrell walked outside, did an about-face and went back inside before firing a final shot.

Jordan says that none of the children lived with their parents and that Cantrell III had been arguing with his folks about money earlier in the day.

This is just one of many homicide files Houston-area detectives have opened since last Friday. It was a strange mix of nudity, crack pipes and a guy shot with his own gun.

Douglas Taylor

Photo courtesy of HCSO

Houston Police arrested Douglas Bernard Taylor on suspicion of shooting a man in the back of the neck on Sunday, killing him. Officers initially got a call about a guy with a gun running around MLK Boulevard. As the cops pulled up to the curb, they saw a man in his birthday suit -- who according to police matched "the suspect's description" -- walking down the street acting belligerent.

The man struggled with the officers, according to police, and the cops used their Taser to subdue him. Detectives say they later learned that Taylor had been in an argument with a couple of people in the 5500 block of Pershing when he took out his gun and began firing.

On Monday, Houston police detectives were called out to a motel on the 8100 block of West Little York. When they arrived, there was no suspect to arrest. He was already dead. Police say a man drove into the motel's parking lot and began to walk towards a woman standing on the balcony. The man pulled out a gun and began struggling with her when the man and woman in the room next door tried to intervene. The woman trying to help was shot in the arm, while her friend was able to get the gun from the shooter before shooting him dead.

Usually the first guy who pulls out his gun wins a gun fight, but not Tuesday at the car wash over on the 7900 block of Homestead. Police say a couple of guys were fighting when the first man drew his gun. But he didn't shoot in time, because the other man then drew his handgun and started firing all over the place. He shot and killed his foe and also struck two people standing nearby, who were treated at Ben Taub Hospital. Witnesses told the police that at least 16 shots were fired.

The body of a man who had been declared missing showed up in the trunk of a car Saturday morning in Pasadena. Salvador Rojas, 49, disappeared in Galena Park Wednesday, Vance Mitchell of the Pasadena police says. Officers found his body after someone in an apartment on the 4300 block of Shaver reported a foul stench coming from the parking lot. Mitchell tells Bayou Body Count that Rojas may have been involved in a scheme lending money to Hispanic immigrants that the immigrants could not pay back. He says it's unclear yet whether Rojas' activities are related to his death.

Houston police on Sunday discovered Reginald Thomas, 26, dead in his apartment-complex parking lot on the 6300 block of West Airport. Police believe Thomas was shot after arguing with a group of men over money that Thomas supposedly owed. McKinley Levonte Lewis has been arrested and charged with murder, police say. Two others, described as African-American men, 20 to 35 years-old, are still wanted.

On Monday, Harris County sheriff's deputies were checking on a resident at the Ryans Point Apartments on the19600 block of Park Row when the resident said he hadn't heard from his friend recently, who also lived there. When deputies entered the apartment, they found two dead men with gunshot wounds.

Houston police began looking for a trio of suspects Wednesday night after a man was shot in his home at 5800 Hollister. According to police, three African-American men, one of which was about 5-foot-eleven-inches tall and 240 pounds with a beard, kicked in victim Jesse Whitfield's front door armed with guns. While one of the gunmen allegedly held a woman and her daughter at gunpoint, the other two opened fire through the bedroom door, striking Whitfield multiple times. The shooters then stole some property and fled, say police.

Finally, Harris County deputies arrested Joshua Trull, who allegedly killed his neighbor's boyfriend for trying to keep him from his crack. According to the sheriff's office, Trull got in an argument with Bryant Doran, who was upset Trull was smoking crack. Doran allegedly took Trull's crack pipe and broke it, upsetting Trull enough to go to his home and return with a steak knife and a large butcher's knife. Trull then stabbed Doran once, killing him, deputies say.

If you have information relating to any of these deaths please call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477)